[10] Maria Teresa had offered the mediation of the
empire to restore peace between England and France.

[11] Spain had recently entered into the alliance
against England in the hope of recovering Gibraltar.
And just at the date of this letter the combined fleet
of sixty-six sail of the line sailed into the Channel,
while a French army of 50,000 men was waiting at St.
Malo to invade England so soon as the British Channel
fleet should have been defeated; but, though Sir Charles
Hardy had only forty sail under his orders, D’Orvilliers
and his Spanish colleague retreated before him, and
at the beginning of September, from fear of the equinoctial
gales, of which the queen here speaks with such alarm,
retired to their own harbors, without even venturing
to come to action with a foe of scarcely two-thirds
of their own strength. See the author’s
“History of the British Navy,” ch. xiv.

[12] Letter of September 15th.

[13] Letter of October 14th.

[14] Letter of November 16th.

[15] Letter of November 17th.

[16] Kaunitz had been the prime minister of the empress,
who negotiated the alliances with France and Russia,
which were the preparations for the Seven Years’
War.